


Cinderella and Cantarella

by TheNerdyGirl



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Cinderella Elements, F/F, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Kanae is probably dead, Sibling Incest, akio sucks as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24264112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNerdyGirl/pseuds/TheNerdyGirl
Summary: "In a story ... a prince put crystal slippers on a princess ... or something like that. I wish I was like him, it's my dream·Anthy could only call her delusional in her mind.
Relationships: Himemiya Anthy/Ohtori Akio, Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Cinderella and Cantarella

All happy families are more or less different; all unhappy families are more or less similar ... Or at least Anthy remembered something like that.  
Everything was disastrous in the Ohtori castle — the Himemiya castle, to be exact — causing the siblings tribulation after tribulation. Anthy could not live with Akio, nor could she live without him. They both knew that there was no point in maintaining the facade of coexistence, but they were more than sure that if they got rid of it, blood would run. Himemiya had locked herself inside a coffin, Akio was hanging around the ends of the world.  
And to cling to the facade of normality that both pretended, they decided to go to the Ball together.

All happy families are more or less similar, all unhappy families are more or less different ... But it was not that Utena knew about it. Her relationship with her aunt, while not the best, was not bad either. Not that she had parents to compare her to. She couldn't remember her parents at all, she could only remember the screaming, the blood, the death, and ... her memories were obscured.  
Her blue eyes peered at the military-style clothes in front of her over and over again, as if she couldn't believe she could finally use them. She was going to a Ball, and after much insistence she could wear the clothes she wanted so much to wear.

"Brother, I thought you were going with Miss Kanae," Himemiya wanted to force herself to form a smile and act as if she had simply forgotten. Snow White had fallen asleep after biting a poisoned apple.  
Akio pursed his lips and his gaze filled with disdain - more than usual -, seeing how Anthy smiled.  
"She feels sick, didn't you know? But it doesn't matter, Anthy ... You look adorable today, you are the apple of my eye."  
Akio, in his unpleasant way, was right. The red dress was similar to the color of an apple, just like carmine-tinted lips and matching painted nails. Along with all that, red slippers like burning coal. That, as always, was the punishment that all witches deserved.  
"Thank you very much, Brother, you also look charming."  
As often happened, their mutual torment only fanned the flames of hatred that existed between them.  
Akio couldn't forgive Anthy's smile. Anthy used to shudder with fear at his presence, overwhelmed with pain both physically and mentally as she cried with him caressing her head. She didn't hate him back then, he wanted to believe. He didn't hate her ... or at least he wanted to believe. Akio Ohtori, who wasn't even sincere with himself, was capable of lying to the point that even he believed it. It was the only way he couldn't experience regrets. He only regretted that he could not hide the expression of displeasure at the word "charming". He couldn't think it, he didn't want to think about it.  
He vaguely imagined that Anthy closed her eyes so as not to see his faults, and bathed him with her blind love and devotion, as she had once done long ago. How disgusting. Anthy's error had been serious! Now she was paying the consequences.  
"Come here, Anthy."  
Himemiya knew that it was not a request, but an order.  
"Yes, brother. Are you going to comfort me tonight after the ball?"  
"That's right ..." His arms wrapped around her waist, and Himemiya pulled him closer with hers. Her nails dug into the flesh, and she could feel Akio tense under her touch. As an actress for tragedies, Anthy was gifted. As a heroine in a comedy… she was so pathetic that even she laughed.  
"Come, my dear, let me kiss you ..."  
When their tragically bad parody of the love act ended, Anthy had bruises shaped like her brother's hands on her body, and Akio's lips were bitten and bathed in a mixture of lipstick and blood.

By the time the ball had started, Himemiya was already exhausted. Her feet burned and the bruises ached. She kept dancing piece after piece, even though she could only move like a disarticulated doll in her brother's arms.  
When Akio finally left her alone to speak to a woman who was more than familiar to her — Mrs. Ohtori — but with whom she wanted nothing to do, she took the opportunity to escape to the garden.  
The first thing to abandon her were her shoes, then the tiara, and then the glasses. Her burning bare feet against the cold, moist earth finally got the needed comfort they asked for. The roses always welcomed her, since they were her only friends.  
She sat down on a bench and looked at the moon, then at Venus ... And felt the swords piercing her again. She hardly moved, instead of bending in like pain she had done many years ago. Her heart stopped beating for a second, her nerves burned, and her hair stood on end before taking a deep breath.  
She was so focused on her own suffering that she didn't notice it.  
"Is this yours?"  
The one who looked at her, her shoes in hand and her tiara next to them, while her glasses remained on the floor. Himemiya nodded when she saw the uniform in front of her, and almost burst out laughing when the girl — Utena, that's how she had introduced herself — knelt in front of her. The white of her suit was stained by dirt on the ground, but she didn't care.  
Himemiya almost hissed as she felt the shoes touch her already abused flesh again, but she didn't say anything. She controlled her breathing, smiled, and introduced herself with a curtsey. She put on the tiara and thought she had never seen her before and did not expect to see her again.  
Gurgling with laughter at the thousands of questions the stranger asked her, Anthy unfolded a picturesque web of half-truths and lies. There was a time when maybe she didn't have to fake her smile anymore, and before she knew it it was almost midnight.  
"I have to leave soon," said Utena, "I'm sure my aunt is looking for me."  
"Is that so? My brother sure is looking for me too."  
"Himemiya," Utena spoke, sitting next to her and looking at the stars, "... Have we met before? I feel like I've seen you before, but I don't know where."  
" ... I don't think so, Miss Utena."  
"Why did you take off your shoes?"  
"I wanted to feel the earth" that was not a lie, the coldness of the soil had lightened her burden, "Why did you return my shoes to me?"  
"In a story ... a prince put crystal slippers on a princess ... or something like that. I wish I was like him, it's my dream·  
Anthy could only call her delusional in her mind.  
"It is a good dream."  
"I know it's weird, but ... I'd like to see you again."  
"Me too."  
She wanted to convince herself that she was lying, but she couldn't. She could no longer distinguish between Cinderella and Cantarella.


End file.
